Dangers of Bed Liner Material

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John L
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Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:48 am
Location: Covington, Louisiana

Dangers of Bed Liner Material

Post by John L »

I have a 1975 710M. My truck came from Arizona where the weather is generally nice and dry. The truck is currently in South Louisiana where it rains every day in the summer and during hunting season we are driving through wet areas to get to where we need to be. The person who had the truck before me applied a bed liner material to the undercarriage as well as on top of the back floor area. Many people think this protects the truck and helps with soundproofing. I never gave it a second thought until I had some work being done by my buddy Andre Swanson at Fat Fabrications. He stated he did not see any signs of active rust; but that I should consider removing the bed liner material for the reason that when it gets even a pin hole in it the moisture stays and begins to propagate rust. FYI my truck is garage kept, so she is not out in the weather.

In the midst of doing a summer cleaning of the cab area, I noticed a few spots under the floor plate on the passenger side of what appeared to be bubbled paint. The more I dug the more I realized I had a bit of rust developing. I remembered what Andre told me and embarked on the process of removing the bed liner material. Not only did I have rust developing under the foot plate on the passenger side, it was developing at some of the seems in the tub underneath, under the original vinyl under the crook of your knees above the wheel well, also had it developing on the driver's side in similar locations. There was some pitting where the steering controls come out of the tub, as well as other locations. I have to warn anyone who has bed liner material under or on top of their truck that this could be happening to yours as well. I caught it well before a repair needed to be made to the metal; but please beware. The bed liner material gives the bad spots some strength and hides the signs of the rust many times before its too late.

My plan of attack is to remove all of the bed liner material from the truck. As you can imagine this is labor intensive. I am focused on the cab/front portion for now and will move to the back probably after hunting season. I am about 85% done on the removal process. I'm using a product called Citristrip which you can buy at your local big box home improvement stores. A half a gallon is about $25. You paint it on with a brush, cover it with cellophane or plastic sheeting, let it sit for about 24 hours and then scrape and wipe it off. Sometimes it goes straight to bare metal with one application. Generally it takes about 3, especially in the harder to reach areas. Be patient and understand the project will take some time.

After I get all of the bed liner off and have the tub, wheel wells and undercarriage down to bare metal, I will do the same thing to the interior. The interior paint will come off easy. Use the same product and same technique and after 24 hours you are merely wiping the paint off with a rag. No need to scrape. Once I have both sides of the tub down to bare metal I will grind the bad spots to smooth them out. I only have two or three of those. Then it'll be time to treat the rust/metal. Pics will be posted.

I am using a POR 15 set of products that entail cleaning the metal, treating the rust, preventing more rust, then top coating it all. This product will create a hard seal that supposedly withstands direct impact strikes from a hammer... or a rock :). As I move along with this I will post some pictures so you guys can benefit from my research and trial and error. Thanks Andre for the warning.

As with all Pinz projects, they grow in scope as they move along. As I was removing some of the interior components in order to treat and repaint the interior it turned into a tear down and rebuild for everything in the cab except the dash. Clean, wipe, repair, repaint and reinstall. While I have her somewhat stripped down I am going to attempt what Vince wrote about extensively and try to "soundproof" the truck... starting with the cab. I'll post information about that work and how it comes out on a separate thread.

Back to this post... from what I have seen with my own eyes, beware of using bed liner material for any reason on these old metal trucks. At some point it will cause rust to develop and if not caught in time you wind up with a parts truck or a rolling rust bucket. They are way too cool to let them rust away! Levers Down!!
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John L
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Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:48 am
Location: Covington, Louisiana

Re: Dangers of Bed Liner Material

Post by John L »

As an update for anyone interested, I found some rust under the passenger seat, at the bend where your legs would bend, in the foot well area, around the heater hose floor connection, and in the air tunnel. None of it was bad; but it exists nonetheless and will be totally repaired and treated. I'll report on the drivers side when I complete stripping it down.
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Tank
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Location: Pullman, WA, USA

Re: Dangers of Bed Liner Material

Post by Tank »

John,

Sounds like fun! I'm into a similar project and would love to hear updates on yours. My adventure began with servicing my lockers. The tube that connects the reservoir to the system bled out, which led to cleaning up brake fluid in the air tunnel and floorboards... And now rust in those areas. Fortunately, I don't have bed-liner to deal with. I'll be stripping out the badly deteriorated insulation inside the wind tunnel and am considering what to replace it with. I was thinking to use Spectrum Second Skin, as I think Dynamat may leave too much opportunity for moisture to do its damage. But, I'm pretty much a noob at this. I'm wondering if you have a plan, or the same issue? Or, if anyone else can shed some wisdom?
Good luck and thanks!

Chris
Chris Rehwaldt
1973 Pinzgauer 710K
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rmel
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Re: Dangers of Bed Liner Material

Post by rmel »

Spectrum would be a good choice. That’s exactly what I used in my 712 tunnel.
Took about 6 coats to get the desired thickness. The longer story is that I tried
Mass loaded vinyl prior to spectrum and it lost adhesion on a very hot day and my
Fan belt had a wonderful time eating that stuff. Good I had a spare belt in the
tool box ://
Puller: 71' 710K 2.7L EFI aka Mozo
Follower: Sankey MK 3, 3/4 Tonne
Rescue Pinz: 73' 712MK

Driver: Ron // KO0Q
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John L
United States of America
Posts: 167
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:48 am
Location: Covington, Louisiana

Re: Dangers of Bed Liner Material

Post by John L »

Chris... Second Skid Spectrum is exactly what I used. I'll give you an update now; but I plan on posting a full update with photos in a bit... I'm close. So, I've been doing this project at night and on weekends. It's taken a while but it is coming along great. After stripping the bedliner and all paint, I went with the POR 15 set of products. Great stuff. Once you have stripped all of the paint you want off you then spray on the cleaner/degreaser and then spray clean water on it to rinse it. I did this to ALL of the metal including the interior and exterior of the tub and all pieces and parts I removed from the interior of the cab while working on her. This includes one fender on the drivers side to get to the electrical run between the box and the fender up into the cab; air distributor, fan housing, glove box, air diffusers, etc... Then you spray all of them with the Metal Prep from Por 15. It etches the metal and leaves an coating to aid with the bonding of the metal rust treatment/preventative. I then painted with a brush the metal treatment/Rust Preventative on from POR 15. It is incredible stuff. Makes a rock solid coating. It is self leveling and really takes care of imperfections in the metal. Once done, follow the instructions: either before it's totally dry (dry to the touch but tacky) apply the Spectrum. If you let the POR 15 dry then use 220 grit sand paper to lightly rough it up to apply the Spectrum (or any other top coat). I then painted the Spectrum on. Choose your brushes wisely. A nice brush aids in putting a nice coat; but the POR 15 won't clean up. Either be prepared to use cheap brushes or knock all coats out in one day and keep the brush in a solvent between applications. The Spectrum goes on great with a brush. I did use a chip brush towards the end and it worked fine. Be mindful of the area of coverage and the space you are working in to get the ideal size brush. I applied 5 coats to: underside wheel wells (limited my work to the front cab area); under side of the tub; interior above the bumper line on both sides in front of the door, the area behind the glove box, heater etc... under the windshield; the underneath the air tunnel in the cab and inside the air tunnel and on the top of the ramp leading to the fan belt.

The noise difference should be HUGE once I get her back together. All of that metal than rang, clanged, rattled, etc... is now a dull "thud" when it's hit. I also painted the inside of the glove box, the underside of the metal rails which hold the dog house down, the underside of both floor plates and a few other items. Anything which could rattle or ring/ding got some Spectrum. I am in the two week waiting period for it to cure before I put the green top coat back on it. I purchased the swiss army green from SAV. It's a really good paint and the application is simple. Leaves a nice finish.

I had a fuse block run off of the radio connection on the passenger side and a large light bar run on the passenger side. While the fuel filler lines were out I cleaned up and rewired everything on that side last night. On to the dirvers side to include the main switch, grounds, an air compressor and a 24 to 12 volt converter tonight. I may get her started if I'm lucky :).

Go with the Spectrum... you will like it. I plan to put gloss black paint on top of the specturm everywhere but the interior of the cab. The cab will be original green when I'm done. Stay tuned... I need her rolling for the opening of rifle season here which is quickly approaching.

One other note, as for the heater blower motor, the air compressor and the 12/24 volt converter I'm installing quick disconnect waterproof plugs so these items can be removed/repaired/replaced without having to totally cut wires and reconnect later. I'll post photos once completed.

Levers Down!
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